Module-4

E-Governance
Introduction

E-Governance is the application of electronic means in governance.It is the application of ICT

(Information and Communication Technology) in providing goverment services to the citizens in
an efficient and transparent manner.The word e-governance implies technology driven
government.Through e-governance government services will be made available to the citizens in
an efficient and transparent manner.

E-governance is sometimes referred to as online governance or digital governance.The three

target groups under e-governance are government,citizens and business.E-governance uses a
wide range of technology including internet,LAN,mobile phone etc.

Objectives of E-governance
The basic objective of e-governance is to use technology to deliver government services to
citizens.It increases transparency and accountability in government services.Some of the
important objectives of e-governance are,
1.Faster delivery of services:-E-governance provides services faster.
2.Increases interaction among citizens and government.
3.Reduces cost:-E-governance reduce cost of physical delivery of services and information.It
eliminates the use of paper.
4.Increases accountability:-E-governance increase transparency of government.Accountability
is the answerability of government.
5.Free flow of information:-Free flow of information empower society.
6.Increases transparency:-The use of ICT makes information available online.It eliminates
concealing information.
E-governance Phases(Stages of implementation)
The application of e-governance involves four stages.The four stages are information
phase,Interaction Phase,Transaction Phase and Transformation Phase.

Information Phase :-This is the first phase in e-governance implementation.It involves publishing
information on a website for citizens.This makes government information accessible to general
public.This increases transparency and strengthens democracy.

Interaction Phase :-Interaction phase involves interaction between government and public.People
can ask questions,download form.

Transaction Phase :-This stage involves electronic delivery of documents.Some examples of

transaction are filing of tax,visa and passport services etc.This phase is complex due to security
issues.Digital signature is used to provide legal validity for digital certificates.
Transformation Phase :-This phase involves integration of information with public.

Features of E-governance
The main features of e-governance are
1)It is computer based.
2)It uses modern technologies such as internet and mobile phone.
3)It increase transparency and efficiency of government services.
4)It facilitates speedy delivery of government services.
5)It increases accountability.
6)Reduces cost.
7)Long wait at queue can be avoided.

Types of E-governance service

The four E-governance services are,

1) Government to Citizens (G2C) :This is the communication process of individual

citizens with the government. G2C are those activities in which the government delivers

online access to information and services to citizens. A great number of initiatives

have been taken in this category by the Governments. Type of services which are

provided by this model includes:-

✓ Payment of online bills such as electricity, water, telephone etc.

✓ Online filling of complaints.

✓ Availability of any kind of online information.

✓ Online registration of applications.

✓ Copies of land-record.

2) Government to Business (G2B) :E-governmentcategorythatincludes interactions between

governments andbusinesses.They include,

• Businesses selling products and services to government.

• Government selling to businesses and providing them services.

• Collection of taxes.

• Paymebt of bills and penalty.

• Rejection and approval of documents.

3) Government to Government (G2G) : This is the non-commercial interaction and

 transactions between Government organizations. G2G initiatives help in making the inside
government procedures more efficient. E-governmentcategorythat includes activities within
government units and those between governments. Type of services which are provided by
this model includes:-

✓ Sharing of information between police departments.

✓ Finance and budget work.

✓ Exchange of government documents.

4)Government to Employees (G2E) : E-government category that includes activities and services
between government units and their employees.

E-governance infrastructure

E-governance infrastructure mainly consists of State Data Centers(SDC),StateWideAreaNetwork

(SWAN)andCommonService Centers (CSC).The SDC provides storage,SWAN provides connectivity and
CSC acts as delivery point.

1) StateDataCentre(SDC): StateData Centre (SDC)is oneof the important element of

the core infrastructure for supporting e- Governance initiatives. State Data Centers
(SDC) are multiple data centers set up in various states to provide fundamental
infrastructure for various E –Governance programs being run as part of National
eGovernance Plan of India. The main purpose of these centres is to provide a physical
facility for hosting various state level e-government applications.

2) State Wide Area Network (SWAN) :A State Wide Area Network (SWAN) is one of the
core infrastructure components under the National e-Governance Plan of the Government
of India. The main purpose of this network is to create a dedicated Closed User Group
(CUG) network and provide a secured and high speed connectivity for Government
functioning and connecting State Headquarters, District Headquarters, Blocks
Headquarters. The SWAN project, forms a strategic component of the National e-
Governance Plan.
 3) Common Service Centre (CSC) : The CSCs provide high quality and cost-effective
video, voice and data content and services, in the areas of e-governance, education,
health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services. A highlight of the
CSCs is that it will offer web- enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including
application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and
water bills.

Common Services Centers (CSC) provides facilities for multiple transactions at a

single geographical location. The main purpose of these centres is to provide a
physical facility for delivery of e-Services of the Government of India to the rural and
remote locations where availability of computers and internet is currently negligible or
mostly absent.

Technologies Used in E-Governance

Technology defines the infrastructure required for implementing e-Governance services.
ICT infrastructure includes hardware, software and communication protocols.National e-
governance Plan (NeGP) is a government agency for implementing e-governance in India.
NeGP goal is to make most public services available online ensuring that all citizens have
access easily. The government has set up three common ICT infrastructures for effective
deliveries of public services are State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), State Data Centre
(SDC) and Common Service Centres (CSC) . SWANs are based on multi-tiers of Network
connectivity model, which comprise of State Head Quarter,
District Head Quarters and Tehsil Head Quarters etc. SWANs which are used for
backbone network for data, voice and video throughout a state/UT. State Data Centre has been
providing various functionalities such as secure data storage, online delivery of services,
Disaster Recovery,
Citizen Information/Services Portal, Service Integration, and State Intranet Portal. The Common
Services Centres (CSCs) are proposed to be the delivery points for Government, Private and
Social Sector services to rural citizens of India. The various G2C Services has been
providing at Common
Services Centres such as Agricultural services, Land Records, Issuance of Birth and
Death Certificates, Bill payments –water, electricity, telecom, Property Tax and Grievances
Services etc. Some tools are used for providing e-Governance services are described below.

A. Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

OCR is the recognition of printed or written text character by a computer. This involves photo
scanning of the text character-by-character, analysis of the scanned-in image and then
translation of the character image into character codes, such as ASCII, commonly used in
data processing.OCR is being used by libraries to digitize and preserve their holdings. OCR is
also used to process checks and credit
card slips. OCR contributes toward paperless governance by reducing number of unnecessary
copies when reading or detection can be done by device at a lightning speed.
B. Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)
MICR device which is commonly used in banking environment where customer‟s
identification and bank information are preprinted with iron oxide based ink. This device
detect the ink will translate to the readable form. An MICR reader translates these characters into
digital form for the computer.
C. Video Conference
Videoconferencing technology conducts a conference between two or more participants at
different sites by using computer networks to transmit audio and video data. For example a
point-to-point video conferencing system works much like a video telephone. NIC is
providing Video Conferencing services in government organizations.Video Conferencing
facilities are being upgraded with state
of art technology in all locations by providing High Definition Video Conferencing
systems. Videoconferencing services are being used for monitoring of various Government
Projects, Schemes, Public Grievances, Monitoring of Law and Order, Hearings of RTI
cases, Distance Education, Tele-Medicine, monitoring of Election processes, Launching of
new schemes and so on.

D. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

Personal digital assistant is a term for any small mobile hand held device that provides
computing and information storage and retrieval capabilities, keeping schedule calendars and
address book information handy. Some PDAs offer a variation of the Microsoft Windows
operating system called
Windows CE.
E. Cloud Services
Cloud computing is an emerging area for organizations that offer on-demand based computing
resources. It can be provided three types of services are Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform
as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service s(IaaS). The e-Office cloud model allows
easy creation of an e-Office setup for organizations. For example an organization needs to
create an e-Office the required
modules to set up e-Office can be acquired from the cloud [17]. Currently government is
setting up of National and State levels cloud computing platforms. These are provided facility
of AppStore e-RAAS (Reusable, Application, Availability and Store).
F. Biometric Technologies
Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring biological data. Biometric
Technologies refers to a device that obtains biometric information immediately typically in a
digital format ready for comparison to a database . Some of the more uses of these
biometric methods for
identification or verification include Fingerprint recognition, Hand geometry, Retina
scanning, Facial recognition, Signature dynamics, Keystroke dynamics and Voice
recognition. Other technologies that are emerging or that are being studied include facial
thermography, DNA,hand grip, fingernail, ear shape and brain wave pattern and foot print
recognition.

Beneficts of E-Governance

Following are the advantages of E-Governance,

• E-Governance facilitates better delivery of government services to citizens.

• Automation of government services.

• Increases transparency.

• Strengthens democracy.
 • Improves performance of government departments.

• Saves time and money.

Objectives of e-governance
The objective of e-governance is to makegovernment administration transparent,speedy and
accountable. Some of the important objectives of e-governance are,
1.Faster delivery of services:-E-governance provides services faster.
2.Increases interaction:-E-governance increases the interaction among citizens and
government.
3.Reduces cost:-E-governance reduce cost of physical delivery of services and
information.It eliminates the use of paper.
4.Increases accountability:-E-governance increase transparency of
government.Accountability is the answerability of government.
5.Free flow of information:-Free flow of information empower society.
6.Increases transparency:-The use of ICT makes information available online.It eliminates
concealing information.

E-governance Phases(Stages of implementation)

The application of e-governance involves four stages.The four stages are information
phase,Interaction Phase,Transaction Phase and Transformation Phase.
Information Phase :-This is the first phase in e-governance implementation.It involves
publishing information on a website for citizens.This makes government information
accessible to general public.This increases transparency and strengthens democracy.
Interaction Phase :-Interaction phase involves interaction between government and
public.People can ask questions,download form.
Transaction Phase :-This stage involves electronic delivery of documents.Some examples
of transaction are filing of tax,visa and passport services etc.This phase is complex due to
security issues.Digital signature is used to provide legal validity for digital certificates.
Transformation Phase :-This phase involves integration of information with public.

Features of E-governance
The main features of e-governance are
1)It is computer based.
2)It uses modern technologies such as internet and mobile phone.
3)It increase transparency and efficiency of government services.
4)It facilitates speedy delivery of government services.
5)It increases accountability.
6)Reduces cost.
7)Long wait at queue can be avoided.
E-Governance Models
The five important e-governance models are
1)Broadcasting model :-In broadcasting model information is broadcasted to public.This
model focuses on spreading information to mass.Citizens can judge functions of
government mechanism.This helps them to excersise their rights and responsibilities.The
main features of this model are
Displays governments law and legislation online.
Makes key information available to public.

2)Critical Flow model:-

The model is based on broadcasting information of 'critical' value (which by its very
nature will not be disclosed by those involved with bad governance practices) to targeted
audience using ICTs and other tools. Targeted audience may include media, affected
parties, opposition parties, judicial bench, independent investigators or the general public.
This model could be applied in the following possible ways:

• Making available corruption related data about a particular Ministry / Division

to the concerned regulatory body.
• Making available Research studies, Enquiry reports, Impact studies
commissioned by the Government or Independent commissions to the affected
parties.
• Making Human Rights Violations cases violations freely available to Judiciary,
NGOs and concerned citizens.
 • Making available information that is usually suppressed, for instance,
Environmental Information .

3)E-Advocacy /Mobilization and Lobbying Model

E-Advocacy / Mobilization and Lobbying Model is one of the most frequently used
Digital Governance model. It has often helped the global civil society to make a great
impact on global decision-making processes. The setting-up a planned and a directed
flow of information, in order to, develop strong virtual allies to complement actions in
the real world forms the basis of this model. The model accumulates diverse ideas,
expertise and resources through a virtual network, and is thus able to, mobilize and
leverage useful information, as well as, plenty human resources overcoming
geographical, institutional and bureaucratic barriers and then use it for concerted
action.

4)Interactive Service Model

Interactive-Service model is a consolidation of the other digital governance models and

opens up possibilites for one-to-one and self-serviced participation of individuals in
governance processes. ICTs have the potential to bring every individual into a digital
network and enable interactive (two-ways or multiple-ways) flow of information among
them. This potential of ICTs is fully leveraged in this model. As the participation is
direct and not through representatives, it can bring greater objectivity and
transparency in decision-making processes, and give a greater feeling of involvement
and empowerment, provided that individuals are willing to engage in the governance
processes.

Under this model, the various services offered by the Government become directly
available to its citizens in an interactive manner.

5) COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS MODEL: This model is highly significant for

developing countries.It can be used for empowering people.In this model cases of poor
governance are matched against cases of good governance. The different aspects of
poor governance and its impact on the citizens are analyzed. The model uses ICT to
explore information which is available in the public or private domain and compares it
with the known information sets. The outcome is the strategic leanings and the
strategic arguments. The model continuously assimilates the Best Practices in the areas
of e-governance. It then tries to use those best practices as benchmark to evaluate
other possible governance practices. The results thus obtained are then used to
advocate positive changes and also to make favorable the opinion of the public on
these governance practices.

Challenges to e-governance

The key challenges to e-governance are

• Legal issues(lack of e-law)

• Lack of trained human resource.

• Access to right information.

• Infrastructure.

Role of ICT in E-Governance

The use of ICT in E-governance enables to provide government services in an efficient
and transpaent manner.The ICT applications offers services of central agencies.These
applications uses ICT to improves connectivity and processing time.Several G2C
projects has been developed.The introduction of ICT in government activities has
made a revolution in the quality of services offered to citizens.The beneficts of ICT in
governance are
• Transparency in process.
• Saves time and cost.
• Better decision making.
• Simplifies procedures.
• Check corruption.
• Better record management.
• Increases accountability.
• Availability of public domain information.
• Increases efficiency.

Disadvantages
• Inaccessible to those living in remote areas.
• Threat of cyber security.
• Maintanance cost is high.
• Lack of E-Literacy in rural areas.
Issues and Challenges of E-Governance
Issues of e-Governance
Technical Issues
1. Interoperability: It is one of the critical issues of e-governance. Interoperation among
ministries and departments is difficult, and it became hurdle for processing and sharing data. In
other words, web based data how to be captured and in which format these seem to be major
issues of e-governance.
2. Security: Now days, security of online transaction is becoming big issue; insurance,
banking, utility bill payments, all these services done by e-governance. In fact, there is still
discontent to citizens on availing government services due to lack of security.
3. Privacy: This is another key issues of e-governace.any information provided by citizens
should be ensured by govt. otherwise, any person or institution may misuse the valuable
information.
4. Authentication: It is very important to know the right user of the services or it may be
misused by private competitors. Meanwhile, the digital signature plays major role in
providing authenticity. In fact, it is expensive and causes for frequent maintenance.

Economic issues
1. Cost: It is one of the economic issues, implementation of e-governance operations and
maintenance of services fetch huge cost to govt.
2. Reusability: Any models developed by government, must be reusability. E-governance
is being national plan, what it incorporates any software or modules should be used by other
administrations.
3. Maintainability: Maintenance should be given due importance. Because, IT ministry has
been continuously developing new soft ware’s in order to fill the current needs of citizens.
Consequently, govt. launched new projects for example, digital India.
4. Portability: The primary requisite for portable applications is independence of components
from hardware and software platforms in order to help in possible reuse by administrations.

Social issues
1. Accessibility: In the era of technology, mostly number of people using internet via computers
and mobile phones. In the context of India, there is still gap arising between users and
nonusers; it is because of language barrier, inadequate infrastructure in rural areas, etc.
2. Usability: Users of e-governance may be literate or illiterate. Any technology or software to
be used as user friendly to greater extent, only then, citizens could use it as smoothly as possible.
3. Use of local languages: India’s population is second next to china, over 65 % only literate
citizens are there; rest of population cannot understand the English language. Therefore, govt.
should make it more comfort by translating this language into their regional languages for the
sake of benefit of e-services.
4. Awareness about e-governance: Number of people in the country has not been aware of it,
on account of illiteracy, non-accessibility of internet in rural areas, lack of will using
internet services, etc. Therefore, educated citizens, concerned institution and dept. should come
forward to get rural people benefited by e-services.
Challenges of e-governance
1. Trust: It is the emerging challenges of e-governance. Trust can be defined regarding users of
new software and trust of the govt. former aspect implies that users of any type of
software or technology must be confident, comfortable and trusting of it. Another very
important aspect related to trust of govt. Nowadays, citizens using e-governance services,
trusting the innovations of e-governance to some extent. Furthermore, there might be some
fraudulent activities done by any other entity for the sake of finance, valuable info and
even about personal information, etc. Besides, in govt. offices, dept. valuable info sometimes left
out or missed; it definitely erodes trust about e-governance among all classes citizens of the
economy.

2. Digital divide: Even in the era of science and technology, there is still huge gap exists
between users and nonusers of e-govt. services. In fact, in India, majority of the masses, who
living below poverty line and they deprived of govt. services. In contrast, some portion of people
are immensely using the e-services of government .However, this gap needs to be made narrow,
then only ,the benefits of e-governance would be utilized equally.

3. Cost: One of the difficult tasks of the govt. is to spend on implementation of e-governance
initiatives to which govt. has to bear huge cost. Few other developed countries UK and
Singapore spending 1% of GDP and 0.8% of GDP respectively. India spending only 3% of GDP,
indeed, govt. should motivate the officials, administrators and common people using services
of e-governance subject to conscious use of public finance on these types of projects.

4. Privacy and Security: It is one of the critical challenges of e-governance. Financial

services, medical services and personal information are to be protected with security, and then
only, there will be number of people trusting of it. Therefore, implementation of e-governance
projects must have security standard and protocols for safeguarding the interest of all classes
of masses; otherwise, citizens will lose trust and confidentiality of e-governance.

5. Infrastructure: It is essentially required for implementation of e-governance as much as

possible in India.Electricity, internet and poor adaptability of technology will retard the
progress of e-governance. In the context of developing countries, there should be enough
basic facilities in order to give impetus to e-governance.

Major ICT Initiatives in the Kerala and other Indian States for E-Governance
Kerala has gone a long way in respect of ICT initiatives in E-governance. The State was
selected as the Second Best State in the entire India in E-governance implementation.

1)Fast Reliable Instant Efficient Network for Disbursement Services (FRIENDS)

FRIENDS (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services) is a
Single Window Facility providing citizens the means to pay taxes and other financial dues to the
State Government.The services are provided through FRIENDS Janasevana Kendrams located
in the district headquarters.
2)E-payment facility (E-pay):
The State Government introduced an on-line bill payment facility named „E-pay‟ through its
Akshaya e-kendras, as an extension of FRIENDS project in Malappuram district during
August 2004.

3)Citizens Call Centre – another Major E-governance Project:

„Citizen Call Centre‟ is the first of its kind in the entire country and is set up in the State
Capital viz. Thiruvananthapuram. It provides information on transactions pertaining to various
Government Departments which are required by common citizens,over telephone. The
information that can be collected include details of various Government schemes,
programmes, entitlements, welfare schemes etc.

4)AKSHAYA – the Revolutionary Project of Kerala IT Mission:

“Akshaya‟ is a path-breaking, people-oriented, grass root level project, similar to the
FRIENDS project discussed earlier. This was launched in November 2002 by the Kerala
State IT Mission. It was originally conceived to bridge the digital divide in
Kerala and to act as a catalyst for socio-economic development of the state.

The following are the objectives of Akshaya Project,

• Ensuring broad-based access to information & communication technology.

• Providing basic functional skill (e-literacy).
• Making available content relevant to local populace in their language, i.e. Malayalam.

5)KISSAN(Karshaka Information Systems Services And Networking)

Karshaka Information Systems Services And Networking (KISSAN) is an integrated, multi-
modal delivery of agricultural information system, which provides several dynamic and useful
information and advisory services for the farming community across Kerala. It is one of the
leading citizen centric E-governance projects of the Department of Agriculture, of Government
of Kerala.

6)SPARK (Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala)

Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK) is a web based G2E
integrated solution for Service and Payroll Management. SPARK is an attempt to bring the
payroll and finance related activities of Kerala State employees within a single application.
The system has been developed with a view to cater to the Administration, Payroll and
other Accounts activities of Government Establishments. Each employee is allotted with a
unique Permanent Employee Number (PEN) through the system.
7) Bhoomi Project: Online delivery of Land Records. Self-sustainable e-Governance project
for the computerized delivery of 20 million rural land records to 6.7 million farmers through 177
Government-owned kiosks in the State of Karnataka.

8) Gyandoot: It is an Intranet-based Government to Citizen (G2C) service delivery initiative.

It was initiated in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh in January 2000 with the twin objective
of providing relevant information to the rural population and acting as an interface between the
district administration and the people.

9) Lokvani Project in Uttar Pradesh: Lokvani is a public-private partnership project at

Sitapur District in Uttar Pradesh which was initiated in November, 2004. Its objective is to
provide a single window, self-sustainable e-Governance solution with regard to handling of
grievances, land record maintenance and providing a mixture of essential services.

10) e-Mitra Project in Rajasthan: e-Mitra is an integrated project to facilitate the urban and
the rural masses with maximum possible services related to different state government
departments through Lokmitra-Janmitra Centers/Kiosks.

11) e-Mitra Project in Rajasthan: e-Mitra is an integrated project to facilitate the urban and
the rural masses with maximum possible services related to different state government
departments through Lokmitra-Janmitra Centers/Kiosks.

12) e-Seva (Andhra Pradesh): This project is designed to provide ‘Government to Citizen’
and ‘e-Business to Citizen’ services. The highlight of the eSeva project is that all the services are
delivered online to consumers /citizens by connecting them to the respective government
departments and providing online information at the point of service delivery.

13) Aadhar Enabled Payment system (AEPS) :

AEPS is a bank led model which allows online interoperable financial inclusion transaction
through the Business correspondent of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication. This has
helped in financial inclusion. The four Aadhaar enabled basic types of banking transactions are
as follows:-

• Balance Enquiry

• Cash Withdrawal

• Cash Deposit

• Aadhaar to Aadhaar Funds Transfer

Challenges for e-governance in India

There are a large number of obstacles in implementation of e-Governance in India. These
challenges are explained below
1)Illiteracy : Literacy can be defined as the ability to read and write with understanding in any
language. Literacy level of rural India is very low. It is a huge obstacle in implementation
of e-Governance projects. Rural people are not able to access the e-Governance facilities due
to illiteracy and so these projects turn out to be a failure.
2)Low IT Literacy: Majority of the Indian people are either illiterate and those who are literate,
they do not have much acquaintance about Information Technology (IT). Most of the rural
population in India is not aware regarding the usage of Information Technology. With
low level of IT literacy, the e- Governance projects cannot be implemented successfully. e.g.
schemes launched by the government like gyandoot, Bhoomi, e-choupal etc. where rural people
are its end users and they fail to use these type of facilities provided by the government.
3) Different Language : In India we have people speaking different languages. Rural population
does not know any other language than their native language. The multiplicity of type of
people in context of language is a huge challenge for implementing e-Governance projects. As
most of e-Governance applications are written in English language. And also, English is
not easily understandable by majority of rural population. Hence, it becomes a challenge for
the government to write e-Governance applications which are to be implemented for the
whole nation in more than one language so that these may be acceptable to the users of a
particular language.
4) Services are not accessible easily: The concept of e-Governance is supposed to
increase efficiency and effectiveness of the government, but these goals will be achieved only
if the service will be available to the 100% of the citizens. So, every service should be
accessible by anybody from anywhere and anytime. Users of Internet are growing but
still there is a major part of Indian population which is not able to access e-Governance
activities for variety of reasons, e.g. some people may have limited access to ICT
facilities and devices. Therefore, government has to provide internet access through public
terminals as a part of their universal access efforts.
5) Cost: In developing countries like India, cost is one of the most important obstacles in the
path of implementation of e-Governance where major part of the population is living below
poverty line. Even the politicians do not have interest in implementing e-Governance. A
huge amount of money is involved in implementation, operational and evolutionary
maintenance tasks. These costs must be low enough so that to guarantee a good cost/benefit
ratio.
6) Privacy and Security: A critical obstacle in implementing e-Governance is the privacy
and security of an individual personal data that he/she provides to obtain government
services. With the implementation of e-government projects, some measures should be taken
to protect the sensitive personal data of the people stored or used in these projects. Lack of
effective security standards limits the growth of various of e-Government projects that contain
personal information.
7) Geographical problems: Corporate networks reside on reliable and controlled networks.
Government networks have to go into all areas which are even unfriendly to live. It is,
however, costly to wire up all the villages in the country. So, e-Governance systems needs to use
the wireless systems like satellite networks to ensure the availability of applications into
rural and remote areas irrespective of the geographical issues.
8) Recognition of applications: Awareness of the e-Governance facilities offered by the
government is another challenge. It is a challenge to have all the citizens well aware of
the facilities offered by the e-government and building trust for these applications, so that
citizens are willing to use these facilities.
9) Hesitation to change : Humans are always reluctant to change. Now e-governance also
means change of the existing system of manual working to computerize systems, which
are generally disapproved by the employees and the common man. People generally
dislike it as they need to learn new things in it for which they need to give in more time and
effort.

E-broking
E-Broking is an internet enabled system that allows users to buy and sell stocks
through internet.An e-brokerage allows one to buy and sell stocks through internet.
The following are the advantages of Online trading
• Reduced cost of transaction:-Online trading reduces processing cost and time.
• E-broking allows buyers to trade with different companies.
• It helps to increase competation among traders.
• E-broking increases the transparency of trading.
Glossary:-
E-Governance
E-Government is “the use of ICTs, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve
better government”. According to the European Union “e-Government is the use of
Information and Communication Technologies in public administrations combined with
organizational change and new skills in order to improve public services and democratic
processes”.

E-District
E-District is a State Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan. E-
District as a concept proposes integrated, seamless, and online delivery of citizen services
at the district level through automation of work flow, backend digitization, integration and
process redesign. The project aims to target aggregate services delivered at the district level
and to undertake back-end computerization for enabling the delivery of citizen services
through Akshaya Centres.

ICT
Information Communications and Technology (ICT) refers all the hardware and software
that people use to send and receive information.

Information Kerala Mission

IKM was set up with the mandate to strengthen local self-governance through ICT
applications as early as in June 1999. It is the largest and most comprehensive local body
computerization project in the country, which envisages computerizing and networking the
1,209 local self government institutions in Kerala. It addresses the entire issues concerning
local body governance, decentralized planning, and local economic development.
NeGP
A major e-Governance initiative on national scale National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is the
lead nodal agency for implementing e-governance in India . The main objective of NeGP
is to transform government citizen services from their present manual delivery to digital
delivery.

Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN)

Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) is being setup as a backbone of the State
Information Infrastructure (SII), connecting Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode,
extending to 14 districts and 152 Blocks of the State. The network will also connect 1500 offices
of Government Departments through Wireless and a larger number through Leased Lines
and LAN.

Janasevanakendram
The „Janasevanakendram‟ is a modern computerised front office designed for local self
government institutions by the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) for improved service delivery.
The intention of Janasevanakendrams is to replace the swarming and non user friendly counters
in most Municipalities with a clean, tidy and people friendly counter with appropriate queue
management options. It now runs in all the five Municipal Corporations, sixty municipalities
in the state. A unique brand identity encompassing the interior design, furnishing and
equipment layout has emerged.

Digital Document File System

Digital Document File System is a web based file tracking & management system. An idea
emerged from the vision of "Less-paper office" DDFS was introduced by Department of IT,
Government of Kerala.

IDEAS (Information and Data Exchange Advanced System)

Information and Data Exchange Advanced System or 'IDEAS' is a web based online File,
Petition and Government Order tracking system implemented by Kerala State IT Mission with
technical support of National Information Centre (NIC). The system facilitates tracking and
monitoring of government documents, serves as a mechanism for reminding the
Government departments about the pending status of files and also provides a real-time status
of Government files/ petitions. It is developed using open source technology. This system makes
the government more transparent and approachable for the citizens, bringing benefits in its
overall governance.
E-Service
E-services (electronic services) are services which use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs). The three main components of e-services are- service provider, service
receiver and the channels of service delivery (i.e., technology).
E-Society
E-society is a society that consists of one or more e-Communities involved in the areas from e-
Government, e-Democracy, and e-Business to e-Learning and e-Health, that use information and
communication technologies (ICT) in order to achieve a common interests and goals.
E-Society
A community where most of the transactions can be executed digitally.
Digital Divide
The digital divide is the gap between people who have access to the Internet and those
who do not. Those without access cannot learn essential computer skills, cannot access
information that can provide economic opportunities, and cannot share in the benefits of e-
government. Bridging the digital divide means more than just addressing race and class issues.
Successful programs will create new opportunities for those who are traditionally isolated from
government programs.
The digital divide refers to the separation that exists between individuals, communities,
and businesses that have access to information technology and those that do not have
such access.

Digital India

Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India to ensure the Government's
services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by
increasing Internet connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of
technology.The program aims at providing digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen as
well as high-speed internet as a core utility in all gram panchayats. The overall scope of this
program is “to prepare India for a knowledge future”, “to make technology central to enabling
change” and “to become an umbrella program covering many departments”.

CERT(Computer Emergency Response Team)

CERT-In was formed with an aim to secure Indian cyber space. CERT-In provides Incident
Prevention and Response services as well as Security Quality Management Services. CERT-In
has been designated under Section 70B of Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 to
serve as the national agency to perform the following functions in the area of cyber security:
• Collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents
• Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents
• Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents
• Coordination of cyber incident response activities
• Issue guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and whitepapers relating to information
security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents.

DigiLocker

DigiLocker is the Indian Government’s flagship program aimed at transforming India into a
digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. DigiLocker ties into Digital India’s
visions areas of providing citizens a shareable private space on a public cloud and making all
documents/certificates available on this cloud. Targeted at the idea of paperless governance,
DigiLocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents & certificates in a digital
way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents.

e-Panchayat

e-Panchayat is an e-Governance initiative for the rural sector providing comprehensive software
solution attempting automation of Gram Panchayat functions. It is a platform for panchayat
representatives to connect with rest of the world, which aims to bring out the local voices by
empowering the local communities to showcase and share local social, cultural and economic
practices, stories and challenges.

PAYGOV INDIA

A National Payment Service platform has been envisaged for a common e-Governance
infrastructure that will offer end-to-end transactional experience for a citizen which includes
accessing various services through internet with payment gateway interface for online payments.
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology along with NSDL Database Management
Ltd (NDML) created a common infrastructure that can be used by Center/States/Departments to
offer various services through their National / State portals with a facility to make online
payment using net banking, credit cards and debit cards.
Glossary

Voice over Internet Protocol - VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP is a procedure for the transfer and transmission of voice
communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the
Internet. It is a technology that allows telephone calls to be made over the internet.